Imagine a manufacturing plant without a time clock, a workplace where a child's first day of school takes precedence over being in the office, and where teamwork thrives because profits are shared.

This is HindlePower Inc., an Easton company that makes battery chargers for utility companies across the country, including PPL Corp. in Allentown. The company's chargers are used by utilities that need backup power to restore electricity.

Unlike many U.S. manufacturers, HindlePower is at the top of its game, growing 15.7 percent a year and setting standards for the industry because of a culture that puts employees first, even before the customer, President and CEO Bill Hindle said. The company was ranked first among small employers in the Top Workplaces survey conducted by WorkplaceDynamics.

"When you believe employees are No. 1, magic occurs," he said. "It's like growing a beautiful flower in a garden. When you do the right things, give the right fertilizer, it's a beautiful thing."

Believing in his 73 employees, most of whom are assemblers, means giving them the information, training and support to do their best, Hindle said. It means trusting employees to submit their own time sheets, rewarding new ideas and hard work with bonuses and paid time off and creating a warm atmosphere where everyone shares the same marble bathrooms, coffeemakers and copy machines.

All this at a plant where the walls are decorated with Impressionist-style paintings of wheat fields, mountains and trees.

Hindle started his career as the youngest of three sons in a business founded by their father. Although he loves his siblings, Hindle said he often found himself frustrated by differences of opinion on how the company should be run. So, in 2000, after 22 years of working with his brothers, he left the Flemington, N.J., Hitran Corp. with 36 of its employees and $3.5 million to start his own spinoff, HindlePower Inc.

Today, HindlePower has twice the employees and five times the revenue, $17.5 million. The company receives a 5 percent credit from the state each year toward workman's compensation for good safety practices. And it gives back to its community, each year contributing $10,000 to charities chosen by employees. This year's recipients: Third Street Alliance in Easton and the Allentown Rescue Mission.

The importance of family became paramount during Hindle's first year in Easton, when doctors told his then 13-year-old daughter she had cancer. For two and a half years, he ran back and forth to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to be by her side as she successfully fought the disease, he said. Now, that daughter is a nurse at CHOP caring for other children with cancer.

"The real importance of life is family and in a wink of an eye they can disappear on you," Hindle said, explaining why he now encourages employees to take time off for important family events or emergencies.

"That's where you need to be," he said. "We understand that 100 percent without question."

Employees make up the time they miss or receive help from co-workers, all of whom are cross-trained to do at least three jobs. Deadlines are never missed.

HindlePower fosters an environment of pride and respect, according to its website. There's no janitor, yet bathrooms are kept clean and graffiti-free; there are few locks and restricted areas and even fewer thefts.

"That would be like stealing from each other," said Art Salander, an office worker in business development and application engineering who confirms what Hindle says about teamwork.

"We are a community working for each other, not to make the boss happy," he said.

Salander, who started with the Hindles in 1992, said he came up with the idea of conducting a symposium to help customers, regulatory agencies and engineering societies learn from HindlePower's expertise in applying and making battery chargers, and Hindle is helping make it happen next year.

"This company encourages employees to do things that are extraordinary, not just come in and do a job, but also grow as an individual and in the industry," he said. "When you are interested in your own personal growth and can do it within the company, everybody benefits."

Salander said he benefited from HindlePower's family-like culturewhen he underwent surgery and received a call and flowers from his boss, and also when his generator broke during Hurricane Sandy and co-workers brought him a new one with gasoline.

"I worked for six other employers in my lifetime, including a stint in military contracting," Salander said. "This is by far the best."

Louis Ortiz, who worked in manufacturing for nearly five years, said he was skeptical when he came to HindlePower as a temp after working in construction.

"Everyone was very friendly and I heard all these great things but I thought no way are people that nice. I planned to go back to construction but after being here a few months and meeting Bill, a very genuine person, I wanted to be employed here.

"I'd rather make less money and be happy at what I'm doing," Ortiz added.

Ortiz said he came to the plant with no experience but was given a chance and excelled. Now he's in charge of shipping battery chargers and their components all over the world — some small packages sent by FedEx, some weighing thousands of pounds.

Ortiz likes how co-workers applaud each other's progress and nominate them for awards at an Oscar-like program. In 2011, he was named Employee of the Year and treated to a dinner catered by the Eastonian restaurant.

To employers who might say it's easy to shower workers with awards and bonuses when business is booming, Hindle notes that his company almost folded in 2003, when the niche market HindlePower relied on for work shut down.

"It was like a light switch shut off," he said. Sales fell by two-thirds in a few months and three people had to be laid off.

But Hindle credits the staff for digging in its heels and learning from its mistakes.

"We learned to diversify, to sell to different markets and closely watch the industry," he said.

Now growing steadily, HindlePower plans to continue to invest in its employees by providing technical training in-house at HindlePower University and contributing toward college or university courses that help them do their jobs better. Also, Hindle plans to add a café where all workers can eat together on the company tab.

He hired two employees in the past year but in spite of the company's growth cannot predict how many he will need in the future.

"We have no turnover and really good employees," Hindle said. "We will hire if we need to and as work volume goes up, but the plant in recent times has had this crazy magic whereas the workload increases, these people get the job done."

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